Croatian architects Bif-Studio have won a competition to design a new Macedonian Orthodox church in Zagreb.The concrete building will include a pastoral centre and an apartment for the priest.Construction is due to begin in 2009.The preliminary project won the first prize in the competition byinvitation from the Macedonian Orthodox Church in Croatia in October2007. The location of the Church is in the center of the city, besideone of the main city avenues.The project will run from May 2008 and is planned to be finished by December 2008. The construction would start in 2009.The building of the Pastoral center and the Macedonian Church of theOrthodox parish “Sv. Zlata Meglenska” merges with the present ambienceof the urban matrix of Stara Knezija beside the Ljubljanska Avenue inZagreb.Situated on the suggested location, the building is trying to blendwith the environment by assembling and expanding all its parts, sincethis is its sole place of existence. It is to be hoped that, if theplace and the building become one, physical and functional demands willbe surpassed and the city area will acquire new values.The plan is that the entrance to the Church and Pastoral center shouldlead from the pedestrian zone alongside the Ljubljanska Avenue throughthe tree-lined road on the north side.The building does not have an open square that would lead toward theentrance, but the Church and the Pastoral center will have an openentrance-court that develops over the perforated wall as a protectedcourtyard. Thus, even the gathering of people on the open area in frontof the Church may make the space more intimate, moving it away from thetraffic jam.
www.dezeen.com/2008/07/14/macedonian-orthodox-church-by-bif-studio/